Improvement in fare-boxes



.ffm JAMES F. WINCHELL.

Improvement in Fare Boxes.

No. t21,920. Patented Dec. 12,1871.

l. v I l GW u UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIGE.

JAMES F. WIN GHELL, OF SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, ASSIGNOE TO ELIJAH O. MID- DLETON, OF SAME PLACE.

'IMPROVEMENT IN FARE-BOXES.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 121,920, dated December 12, 1871.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMEs F. WrNorrELL, of Springiield, in the county of Clark and State of Ohio, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Fare-Boxes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description oi' the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure l is a front elevation of my fare-box, with portions of the shell broken away to expose the interior. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section to show a modified construction.

This improvement relates to the mode of illuminating the interior of a fare-box in streetrailway cars or other vehicles when used during the night; and it consists in the construction of the fare-box with suitable openings and reflectors7 arranged and adapted to receive light from the ordinary head-l amp placed above the fare-box instead of requiring a sep arate lamp to illuminate it, as heretofore. The objections to the employment of a separate lamp are well known to those familiar with the use of fare-boxes. They not only require additional expense in the construction and fitting of the fare-box, but also the additional expense of maintaining a separate light; and this lamp itself is generally disagreeable from the smoke and burned air which escapes from it into the carriage, and it also renders the fare-box less secure and more difficult to keep clean internally than is the case with myinvention.

In my method of illuminating the fare-box no light is used which would otherwise be utilized, because the reflector which throws light into the fare-box is placed at the side, and does not receive any light which would otherwise pass into the car or through the bulls-eye in front.

That others may fully understand my invention, I will particularly describe it.

A is the fare-box, constructed with a chamber, B, for the reception and temporary detention of the ticket while the same is being inspected by the driver or other authorized person looking through a glass window, C, and, after inspection, the fare to be transferred to another chamber or safe, D, below. I do not confine myself to any particular mode of constructing or arranging these parts, which are well understood and require no further description.

The lamp E is always located in the front of the car, at or near the top of the door, and sheds its light forward through the bulls-eye F and backward into the car through the window G. The light which passes away later- -ally from the llame meets the sides ofthe lamp-chamber and ordinarily is not utilized.

I construct the fare-box with an oricc, H, in its top, which is formed by the iloor of the lamp-chamber. Said oriiice is closed with a sheet of glass to prevent any access to the interior of the fare-box by that way. Immediately above the opening H I place in the root' of the lamp-chamber the mirror or reflector I in such oblique position as will cause the light which falls upon said mirror to be reiiected through the opening H into the fare box to illuminate the chamber B, in which the fare is temporarily arrested,- as shown by lines in Figs. l and 2. The mirror I may be flat, but is preferably made concave, as more light may thereby be reiiected through the opening H than from a flat reilector. If for any cause it is not convenient to reilect the light downward through the middle of the fare-box, it may, by the use of a second mirror, J, as shown in Fig. 3, be carried down the outer side and thrown into the receiving-chamber horizontally through a window, K.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Lighting the interior of a fare-box at night by light obtained from the head-lamp of the car, thrown by the retlector I, through an opening, H, in the head-lamp box, into the chamber for the temporary detention of the fare for inspection, substantially in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

J .,F. WINCHELL. [L s.] Witnesses:

HENRY HowE, E. C. MIDDLETON. (42) 

